ATO-SWAN84
The Japanese had turned Truk Atoll into a fortress with airfields capable of accommodating hundreds of fighters and bombers. Anxious to protect the impending invasions of Eniwetok and the Marshall Islands, the US Navy targeted Truk in February 1944 in order to eliminate any threat to the American offensives and lure the Japanese fleet into a decisive battle at sea. Task Force 58 launched a devastating attack, which shocked the Japanese with its scale and destructiveness.
Although the Imperial High Command had withdrawn the combined fleet from this port in anticipation of such an attack, the scale and destructiveness of the American raid was immense. The Japanese lost 15 warships (3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 3 auxiliary cruisers, 2 submarine tenders, and 3 other smaller warships), 32 merchant ships, 270 aircraft, and over 4,500 dead or missing.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was more than avenged. Truk, like the other Japanese island fortress of Rabaul, was effectively put out of action and rendered useless for the defense of Japan.
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